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Marketing Week has revealed that only 7% of marketers believe terms like Gen X, Gen Z and millennial are a very effective means of segmentation, with 55% saying such demographic groupings are not very effective or not effective at all.
DCM’s Marketing & Insight Director, Zoe Jones, spoke to Marketing Week about her thoughts on these catch-all terms, and in particular DCM’s latest research project, Mission 16-34: Launch, Land, Impact, which delves into 16-34s’ media habits, specifically in terms of AV content.
Working with research consultancy Differentology, the study found that 16-34s still value experiences and love entertainment content, but technology has fundamentally changed the way they access this at home and on the move. They are heavy on-demand viewers, but also easily distracted, with many looking to actively avoid advertising.
DCM avoided using labels in its research due to an awareness that these groupings are incredibly broad and there is a significant difference between someone born in 1984 and someone born in 2002.
DCM looked broadly at the 16-34 age group by virtue of this being a key commercial trading audience for AV, but avoided giving them a label beyond their age as we’re aware there are always going to be differences when looking at audiences.
The study uncovered a stark challenge for our industry – 71% of respondents felt that they are ‘hounded by advertising’ and while they spend a huge amount of time online, 39% have installed ad blockers. Despite this challenge, it also revealed that 16-34s do still feel a strong affinity with brands – they do enjoy quality content and they do like advertising, if it’s in the right context. What’s important for brands is to deploy multi-screen strategies due to the different viewing experiences that serve different needs at different times. For cinema in particular, we discovered that our medium was the only ‘active’ channel for this age group – a destination experience where 16-34s have actively planned to pay attention to the content.
There were some interesting differences within the 16-34 audience when looking specifically at the younger (16-24) end of the spectrum: social video becomes more ‘binge-watching’ (than just something spontaneous), live TV (at a broad, non-programme specific level) is more frequently associated as ‘low attention’ and perceptions of YouTube were more positive.
For more information about Mission 16-34, click here or speak to your DCM rep.
Read the full article on Marketing Week here.